Diabetes is a chronic disease, common in modern people. In the Republic of Korea, two million or more people, about 5% of the total population, suffer from diabetes.
Diabetes is caused by the pancreas producing an entirely, or relatively, insufficient amount of insulin due to a variety of reasons, such as obesity, stress, poor eating habits, and the like, so that blood glucose levels are absolutely high, instead of being balanced.
Blood contains a certain concentration of glucose, from which the cells of body tissues produce energy.
However, when glucose levels are higher than normal, glucose is not stored appropriately in the liver or muscles, and excessive amounts of glucose remain in the blood. Thus, patients with diabetes have higher glucose levels than other people. Excessive amounts of glucose are discharged in urine without being absorbed by body tissues. Accordingly, the body tissues may malfunction, since the body tissues may fail to have sufficient amounts of glucose that are necessary for normal functioning.
Diabetes has subtle or no subjective symptoms in the early stages of the disease. With the progression of the disease, however, the classic symptoms of diabetes, such as polydipsia, polyphagia, polyuria, weight loss, fatigue, itchy skin, and slow healing of cuts, appear. Prolonged diabetes may cause complications, such as blurred vision, high blood pressure, nephropathy, palsy, periodontal diseases, muscle spasms, neuralgia, and gangrene.
To diagnose and manage diabetes so that complications do not arise, systematic measurement of glucose levels must be carried out in concert with systematic treatment.
For patients with diabetes and people having higher blood glucose levels than normal even though diabetes has not yet occurred, a number of medical device manufacturers provide a range of portable blood glucose measuring devices such that blood glucose levels can be measured at home.
Such a portable blood glucose measuring device is configured to measure the blood glucose level of a blood sample by providing a blood sample to be subjected to a blood glucose level test to a sensor strip, inputting the sensor strip to a housing, and inspecting the blood sample on the input sensor strip using a blood glucose measuring module within the housing. Afterwards, the result of the blood glucose measurement is displayed on a display device disposed on the housing.
Since the blood glucose level of the blood sample varies depending on the temperature at which the blood glucose level is measured, the portable blood glucose measuring device is provided with a temperature sensor for measuring the temperature. The portable blood glucose measuring device is also configured to calculate a blood glucose level by considering the temperature measured using the temperature sensor.
However, in a typical portable blood glucose measuring device of the related art, the temperature sensor is disposed within a housing, so the temperature sensor measures the temperature of the space within the housing. Since the space is isolated from the outer space, the temperature of the space within the housing may change very slowly over time, even in the case in which the temperature of the outer space changes substantially. As a result, the temperature measured by the temperature sensor may fail to properly reflect an actual change in the temperature of the surrounding environment. A blood glucose level calculated by reflecting the temperature measured in this manner may exhibit a result different from an actual blood glucose level.
For example, when a user who has performed an outdoor activity measures a blood glucose level by operating a portable blood glucose measuring device directly after entering an indoor environment, the indoor temperature, i.e. the temperature of the environment in which the blood glucose level is measured, may be a relatively high temperature of, for example, 25° C., but the temperature of the space within the housing of the portable blood glucose measuring device may remain at the outdoor temperature. Thus, the temperature measured using the temperature sensor of the blood glucose measuring device may be a relatively low temperature of, for example, 0° C. In this case, when the blood glucose level is calculated by reflecting the temperature measured using the temperature sensor, the temperature of 0° C. different from the actual temperature of 25° C. of the environment of the measurement may be reflected, whereby the blood glucose level cannot be accurately obtained.